A Strong Start for the Richmond Waterfront.

It may come as no surprise that the latest news regarding the local real estate market concerns a significant drop in Bay Area sale numbers. This seems to be a combination of two things: The typical winter slump, and a relative lack of homeowners putting their houses up for sale. An effect of this shortage is that housing prices have been bolstered through the holiday season, benefiting homeowners in many parts of the bay, including the focus of this article — The Richmond Waterfront, including Point Richmond, Marina Bay, and Country Club Vista areas.

Despite fewer properties sold, median prices in these areas saw a considerable year-over-year increase of $77,500. In such a small area, could this be a fluke? Is it possible that a few expensive properties sold and skewed the averages? We can’t say with absolute certainty, but we do know that between December and January, this same group of properties closed for an average of $43,750 above asking price. A significant difference like this almost certainly means that there is considerable interest in the area and that prices have room to climb—both of these factors could support a year-over-year price increase like we’re seeing.

As previously mentioned, in both categories of housing—detached single-family homes, and condos / townhouses—local inventory has contracted to a point that hasn’t been seen in years. With detached homes, the “months supply of inventory” dropped to 0.7 “months”; with condos and townhouses, the inventory dropped to an even lower 0.6 “months”. What these figures mean is that, if no more houses were put up for sale, it would only take 2 or 3 weeks to sell through the currently listed homes before there was nothing left to sell. To put this in perspective, a “balanced” buyer-seller figure is usually around 5 to 7 months of inventory. Anything less is considered a seller’s market.

Further illustrating how far these neighborhoods are leaning into the favor of sellers, the time it’s taking a house to sell has fallen. The typical detached home currently takes 37 days to sell (down from 61 days in December) while the average condo or townhouse takes 20 days to sell (down from 41 days in December). In this case, shorter market times mean that buyers are acting faster, negotiations are taking less time, and that demand continues to outpace supply.

So what does this all mean? Only time will tell for certain, but January was undoubtedly a promising start for the Point Richmond, Marina Bay, and Country Club Vista neighborhoods, giving strong indications that 2015 could be another good year for anybody interested in selling a home in these areas.

If you’ve thought about selling your home in one of these neighborhoods, you’ve picked a good time to do something about it! So start off on the right foot by contacting us here at Lifestyle Real Estate Services; we’re professionals at marketing homes in these areas and would love to share our expertise with you so you can get more for your home, and quicker!